House Republicans have pulled out of talks with Democrats to ban the use of hacked or stolen information in campaigns, leading Democrats on Friday to pledge themselves to “not participate, aid or encourage hackers or foreign actors in any attempt to influence American elections.”
The two parties’ House congressional campaign committees had been in discussions since June and were nearing a deal, according to aides. The unprecedented agreement would have seen both committees pledge to not use stolen or hacked material as candidates and incumbents campaign this fall.
That comes after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russian actors interfered in the 2016 election, including by hacking into the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee servers and posting information online about competitive House races.
The National Republican Congressional Committee and the House GOP super PAC used material obtained by a hacker in 2016 in ads.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.
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